I really like youtube recs. I have different accounts for different interests and the recommendations are always on point. I don't understand why so many people from the media complain. I think they just don't like that youtube recommends non-mainstream channels too.
I agree, I've actually found some really interesting channels through recommendations. Perhaps the targeting is so accurate due to the years of data they have on my 2 accounts.
That said, I recently created a brand new account for my company and the default recommendations seem to be absolute mindless garbage. But perhaps my interests just don't align with what the vast majority of the YouTube-using public are watching.
I've found over the years as I get to be more and more of an irascible old man, that my viewpoints don't align with much as far as popularity goes. And that's okay. Frankly the power in YouTube for me was to look back at seminal events that resonated and transformed my life. It is wonderful for that. However, it's very poor at complex recommendations. If I watch a video about the polar ice caps melting, that doesn't mean I want to watch a climate change denier. I realize this is not an easy thing to solve and that's why it shouldn't be solved solely with algorithms. The same way that copyright claims should have a human touch and not just automatically remove revenue for people on the platform.
Yes, YouTube recs are very good. Scarily good. I don't know why no one wants to admit it. YouTube's loss function is minimized by you spending hours on there like a vegetable. It's essentially self-driving tier tech applied to making you an addict to media.
